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Topic: Re: "Around the World for Free!" (Read 44810 times)

Alex and Zsolt start this episode on Day 96 leaving Arusha Tanzania for a broder crossing to Kenya's Masai Mara. That comes with lots of color from views of Masai warriors hopping and women dancing. If hopping were an Olympic sport, I'll bet that Masai warriors would win gold, silver and bronze medals. Alex and Zsolt are hosted by Lensington Tours. Alex agreed to do some labor at their camp in return for accommodations and food. That work starts with using a machete to cut weeds and also a strange rake with nails for its prongs, widely spaced. Next Alex transported water barrels and emptied them into a water tank.

On a tour of the bush, the guide points out leopard tortoise and hippopotamus tracks. He states that there are 200 hippos in a water hole. Hyena tracks are later spotted, apparently chasing some prey. Elephants and lions are seen [lus zebras, musk ox and kudu. A tour of the Masai village is arranged by the Kensington security head, who lives there. There are 100 children in school.

Alex and Zsolt head for Nairobi. They made a decision for safety reasons to abandon Africa and move on to Asia. From Nairobi they want to fly to Mumbai, presumably beacuse of cheap airfares there on Kenya Airways. First, they visit the By George Orphanage, which is caring for 300 children. A network member who is also a personal friend of Alex's, Dov in Jacksonville FL, pays for Alex and Zsolt at Christmas 2008 to have 2 nights in a decent hotel. There is a sightseeing period for about a week. Alex are contacted by Simon back in South Africa who knows someone (his name is something like Kibera) who can take Alex and Zsolt to his home and later to a friend of their's who has an available "home office" at a separate location from his home. He brings in bedding and their is a cafeteria in the building which he urges Alex to use at no cost (he is going to settle the bill after they leave). There is a presidential election about to happen in Nairobi. The whole region is under martial law with multiple checkpoints every mile. The opposition has planned a huge rally for Jan. 3 in Uhuru Park. There is fear of great bloodshed. Another friend is working for the communications company KenTV that plans to cover the rally with video camera and reporter. Alex wants to tag along. They take a practice run in getting to that park and 2 shots ring out. It was extremely difficult and likely to be impossible the day of the rally. Alex abandoned his plans and at the last minute the rally is cancelled.

Alex get a prepaid ticket from the Vodafone group in Praetoria led by Low to fly to Mumbai. There is not enough time to get a proper visa, so he plans to adopt an alternate approach of a 72 hour temporary visa suggested by Indian embassy staff in Nairobi. When he lands in Mumbai, he is escorted to a quarantine area and told his information was not correct and he was being deported back to Nairobi because no transit visas are ever available once in India. He attempted to get some local officials to help the situation but was not given time by the authorities. They got him on the next flight back to Nairobi within hours of arrival. Alex and Zsolt were now stranded in Nairobi airport and their luggage takes a while to show up. They get financial suport from Robert Hutchings (3rd time) and Debbie and Walter Stallcraft(who Alex and Zsolt stayed with in Florence SC on the first night of this odyssey) to buy a ticket to Bangkok.

After landing in Bangkok on Day 110 of the trip, they taste some Thai food, which Alex loves (it's my favorite cuisine so I understand this). Two local members of the network, Claire and Bo arrive unexpected to pick them up, courtesy of Lori in Germantown MD. They introduce Alex and Zsolt to Mr. Nap who provids accommodations for Alex and Zsolt in his home. The women take Alex and Zsolt out for more thai food, including grilled meat with many spices and spicy noodle soup. They go sightseeing around Bangkok. What a contrast to Nairobi! However, to be fair Bangkok has had its share of difficult politcally-based problem days in the past year.

I placed this note here intially, but was advised to also place it elsewehere. I have expanded what i put on elsewhere, so go there for a slightly more complete statement. This show is on History Channel, which I reported incorrectly as National Geographic Channel.

A new series started last Sunday night at 10pm and repeating at 11pm EDT. It is retracing the route of U.S. newsman Henry Stanley to meet British explorer David Livingstone in 1871. It took that expedition from March 12 to Nov. 10 (8 months) in 1871 to go from the coast of Tanzania to Ujiji on the northern shore of Lake Tanganyika. This expedition is attempting to do 950 miles on land in shorter time. The team of 4 is expedition leader Pasqual (a famous expedition guide), Mireya (actually Dr. Mireya the anthropologist), Benedict and Kevin (journalist), plus a team of about 12 porters. The first show started with the expedition hiring a dhow to transport them 20 miles from Zanzibar Island to Bagamoyo Tanzanian shore across the Zanzibar Strait. This is almost the exact opposite of the trip taken by all AR11 teams from north of DarEsSalaam to Zanzibar Island by dhow.

This show is not for everyone. The expedition is continuously dealing with challenges regarding snakes, water supply, bugs, disease, sunburn, etc. The bickering between Benedict, Kevin and Mireya and Paqual also seems to be constant. The plethora of wildlife they view along the route can make up for that.

Try it. You'll probably like it. You can go to the History Channel Expedition Africa site to catch the full first episode.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Alex and Zsolt attempt to find acccommodations at 2 temples and on meditation center without success. Claire offers her home, but the catch is that 15 people (grandmother, 2 aunts, father, mother, siblings and cousins) already live there. They cook a dish called Prao Tai consisting of crushed garlic, chilis, chicken, what looks like bok choy, oyster sauce, cooked and served over rice. One of the aunts has a hairdressing salon next door and offers Alex a haircut after 4 months on the road.

Wat Say Yong Temple agrees to house them for 2 nights. They converse with the senior monk in rudimentary English. There is no bed but no curfew. Alex rises with the monks at 5am to go collect breakfast donations throughout the neighborhood. The same happens for lunch, but there is no dinner. The Chao Phraya Port is nearby. In buddhism, charity = merit and humility is highly prized. Two monks tell each other what they have done wrong on that day already and one has to stay lower because he is less humble and needs reminders of how he should act. They leave the monastery the next morning with the senior monk paying for their taxi to meet another network person who will house them.

Frank is a network member who wants to help. He appears to devote his life to taking care of Alex and Zsolt for the next day or two. He buys every meal for them. He takes them to the Red Light District on Potphong Road. They find that the women are mostly in the sex trade and are very agressive. Frank buys Alex a ticket to get to Koh Sahmui where a restaurant/resort owner has work that Alex can trade for room and board. Frank is a consultant for time magazine in Thailand and Cambodia. He has the website 2Bangkok.com. From him they learn that Bangkok is "like Los Angeles", which is approximately correct as Los Angeles County has 9.9 million people and Bangkok about 9 million.

Alex and Zsolt take the overnight bus to southern Thailand and a boat out to Koh Samui, with Alex paid for round-trip by Frank. They are staying as guests of the Secret Garden Resort and Restaurant. Alex's work is to develop marketing materials for the resort and restaurant. He decides to give them a video highlighting the features of the place.

Alex and Zsolt are taken by another local fishing at Costa Moi. Back in Koh Samui, Alex gets to taste bugs as the main course. There are giant water bugs, beetle larvae, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and a frog. Yummy! What Alex won't do for compelling TV. He does try to give some away to passing American tourists.

They go to Koh Samui Canopy Adventures for zip-lining.

Next Alex and Zsolt leave Koh Samuui on the boat going almost back to Bangkok, but they divert and head to the Thai/Cambodian border and cross to Poipet, a dusty and dirty town on the make. Alex states that "everyone here is trying to make a buck; I don't have a buck." They stay one night with 2 monks they met while wandering through their neighborhood. There is immense poverty here and again at Siem Reap when they reach there. In order to get there in the"no money" spirit, Alex had to accept a ride from a Phnom Penh person who drove up from Phnom Penh to Poipet, 450 km, to make the 160km trip to Siem Reap. Alex and Zsolt get a very brief tour of Angkor Wat before it closes that day.

Another reason to get to Siem Reap is that they are offered the chance to work "for humanity" as medicines and other things are delivered to children in rural villages of Siem Reap Province as coordinated by the Red Cross. Alex helps to carry mosquito nets worth about $5 to people's homes but they must pledge to not divert them into fishing nets. Alex and Zsolt get to Phnom Penh on a boat going from Siem Reap on Tonle Sap all the way to Phnom Penh. I have previously conceptualized Tonle Sap as a very large lake, but the river that flows out of it is also named Tonle Sap.

When they get to Phnom Penh, their host takes them to a Thai restaurant owned by his friend. He also takes them to the entertainment section; it much tamer than the one in Bangkok. Alex watches the dancers pulsating and even tries to kick it up a notch.

This country shows off its scars from the Pol Pot regime. I guess visiting killing fields is now what tourism is about for those Cambodians not able to get to Angkor Wat. Alex start at the Tuol Sleng Museum. The question of why Pol Pot chose to govern by slaughtering innocent Cambodians, particularly anyone educated, intelligentsia, or lawyers, is still open beacuse no one really knows. There are a lot of his victims and many more who are relatives of victims. Alex talked to multiple people who were the sole survivors of large families massacred over time.

Next they went to the Choung Ek killing fields 7 km from Phnom Penh, with its Tower of Skulls the gruesome result of what was done there. Next they visit the so-called Russian Market, but nobody can say why it is named that.

Ingredients are purchased to make Tom Yum soup based on lemongrass, shallots and mushrooms. It is one of my favorites. After they have finished eating it, Alex's host states that they have really had Tom Kha soup due to the coconut milk in it.

A young woman is proud of her new job that is miles away but will pay her $100, presumably each month.

Alex and Zsolt get bus tickets from their host to Ho Chhi Minh City in Vietnam 6 hours away. They find an urban center of 8 to 9 million people. Their host in Phnom Penh had given them $20 for making Internet connections and getting around. They spend it at an Internet cafe and on a taxi. Their new host is Todd, who allows them to camp out in his office. He buys them a train ticket to Cu Cho, a wildlife rescue center. There is the countryside they view bomb craters, displays of bombs and the Cu Cho tunnel which assisted the Viet Cong over 40 years earlier in the Vietnam War. It is day 130 of their circumnavigation.

Next they went on an excursion to "the beach" maybe 8 hours from ho Chi Minh City by train. Alex could not find the right train. The one he got on went instead to Wang Tran, with its waterfront and Phu Quoc Island. There Alex and Zsolt celebrated the Chinese New Year or Tet famous for the 1968 Vietcong offensive. They celebrate with sparklers and fireworks.

Thye learn that Lilly and Preston in Maryland have been following their progress and provided Alex with a airplane ticket to go from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco. Alex gets a job cleaning toilets in a beachfront hotel. He earns enough to take a diving excursion which looks like flippers and snuba to me on day 144. He borrows a moped from the hotel for one hour to see the local area. Finally he gets to Saigon airport.

I stand corrected, as I was hasty in posting old, irrelevant news on ATWTFF. Here is a link to the Around the World Productinos website, which mentions absolutely nothing about season 2, nor can I find anything on it anywhere:

WGN purloined the season one site during the season one run, and many of the links never worked for me then or since.

I wasn't posting here then, but I found it remarkable now many place Alex went to when he and Zac (and Burton) filmed season one that TAR hadn't been to that TAR has since filmed at (especially in Chile, Cambodia and Vietnam (That I can recall offhand). I also think that if Phil ever decided ti retire from TAR, Alex would make a perfect replacement thanks to the ATWFF gig; he's done the best job of any alumni Racer in following Phil's NOW philosophy.

Alex has posted here before, I don't know anything myself but will be glad to ask Alex if there is anything he is at liberty to share??

I loved the last season, followed every ep live, and would love to see this come back!!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

eta. theschnauzers, It appears from apskip's link that they have taken down the clips for the show on WGN's web site. The facebook link that Peach posted does have a few clips though but it's nowhre near as comprehensive as the old WGN site.

CBS and Around the World for Free just announced Jeff Schroeder (TAR 16) will be the host for Season 2.

From Twitter:@ATWFF Excited 2 announce @jeffschroeder23 will be starring in Season 2 of #AroundTheWorldForFree this summer! More info: http://bit.ly/cexzU4

Facebook:Around the World For Free - Official Page We're happy to announce that The Amazing Race and Big Brother's Jeff Schroeder will be starring in Season 2 of Around the World For Free this summer!! Check out the new page and sign up to receive updates from Jeff on the road!

Around the World For Free puts the passionback into adventure and the real back into reality!About the showTune in this summer, when The Amazing Race and Big Brother star Jeff Schroeder departs for his trip around the world … with nothing more than a backpack and the help of an online community. Where he'll go and how he'll get there have yet to be determined, but at least he won't be alone. Fans can follow along every step of the way, offering tips, travel photos and even a helping hand. Sign up now for Around the World For Free updates and we’ll let you know when Jeff hits the road!

Around the World For Free's connection to CBS isn't new. The Amazing Race winner Alex Boylan is a co-creator and executive producer of Around the World For Free. As host of the first season, he traveled more than 45,000 miles through 16 countries. Watch Season 1 . Alex returns along with co-creator and SURVIVOR™: Pearl Islands alumnus Burton Roberts to serve as executive producers for this new, bigger, better Season 2. Co-creator and Emmy-nominated editor Zsolt Luka will reprise his role as field producer, directing, filming, and editing the series on the fly.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Live online at first...later on TV if they follow the same format as last time.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan